Los Angeles based Doom / Sludge Rock band, Future Usses have delivered an astounding instrumental record featuring devastatingly heavy, oppressively slow, yet shimmery and lush sludge-paced rock, run through a filter of nightmarish psychedelia.
Believe it or not, “The Existential Haunting“ (which will be released on the 14th of September 2018) is a debut album. This three-piece’s sound comes across as shrewd, canny and sophisticated.
More info about Future Usses
But while Future Usses have really only played a handful of shows in their short career, main songwriter Sacha Dunable has been a member of Intronaut for almost 15 years, and dabbled with various doom metal projects over the years, like Bereft.
Future Usses takes small elements of what those bands do and magnifies them,
combining the slow-motion crushing power of doom with the atmosphere and dense
harmonic tendencies of Intronaut.
Josh Newell (Intronaut, Cynic), Derek Donley (Intronaut, Bereft) and bassist Jon Nunez (Torche) recorded the drums and guitar at Clearlake Audio in Los Angeles. Converge‘s Kurt Ballou mixed the album at God City Studio.
More about the Future Usses guitar sound
Future Usses‘ lavish guitar sound is built around live guitar loops, “which presents a
whole set of limitations but also virtually endless opportunities“ Sacha Dunable comments. “The beautiful thing about making an instrumental record is that you’re not obligated to
impose any specific literal message onto the listener, but rather to concentrate on setting a
vibe that can be interpreted or personified naturally through the power of their own imagination.”
Fans of Explosions In The Sky, Russian Circles, Sigur Ros, Pallbearer, Pelican, Sleep, Yob and Earth will enjoy Future Usses. Their sound is something that will take some rock fans a while to get used to, but it’s totally amazing in my books. I only listened to two tracks, but I was instantly transported to faraway places in my mind.
To get an idea of their sound, crank up their track “Heavenly Superperson” below:
This is one of Sacha Dunable’s favorite tracks from the record. It’s a very challenging track to play live. It was written around the layering of guitar parts using a looper.
Want to know more about them? Check out their Facebook page. I really hope that this band decides to tour South Africa in the near future.
Watch this space for regular updates in the Music News category on SA Music Zone.
To stay in the loop with all things SA Music, Subscribe to our newsletter.
Looking for something to do? Check out our Upcoming Events section or the SA Gig Guide.
Want to explore the SA Music Scene? Check out our Artist/Band/Group Profiles section.
Want to discover fresh music? Follow our editor's 2025 playlist on Spotify.
